A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a high-speed, numerically-controlled cutting machine particularly useful for cutting glass sheets.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Various cutting machines for sheets of materials are known in which the movement of a cutting tool is numerically controlled. However, known machines of this type have a tracing velocity of less than about 10 m/min. As a result it is not possible when using such machines in the cutting of glass sheets to obtain clean and flawless edges, since, as is known, sharp and regular edges can only be obtained in silicate glass for tracing velocities in excess of about 30 m/min and preferably greater than 50 m/min. Furthermore, the efficiency of known numerically-controlled automatic cutting devices is relatively low, substantially less than the efficiency of automatic machines controlled by a template.
Because of the above-mentioned drawbacks in present numerically-controlled cutting machines for glass sheets, machines controlled by a template are generally used for high-speed glass cutting. While such template-controlled machines are suitable for cutting sets of many units of the same pattern, the idle time required to change the templates and adjust the machine to the new pattern is a serious drawback, particularly when producing smaller sets. For smaller sets of different patterns, numerically-controlled automatic machines would be best suited were it not for the above-mentioned drawbacks.